DIY Garden Design Ideas

Have you ever thought about your garden design? Why did you plant a tree there and not here, or why did you plant your flowers in the way you did... there's a little bit of creativity in each of us. Depending on the difficulty of the plan you have for your exterior space you can start on your own or ask for professional help. Either way there are some rules that need to be followed. Designing a garden landscape also requires some horticulture knowledge.

Depending on the available budget you have a lot to think about:

- Pathways, decking, sitting areas, garden furniture

- Walls

- Water features

- Soil and plants - season requirements, lifespan, appearance, needs

It is important to choose the right plant for the right space considering its scale, the amount of leaves dropped, growth rate, amount of twigs and branches, combinations with other plants and landscape features, bloom-time, spreading or self-seeding of the plants and many other characteristics.

Another option is to create a garden that would seem to be there for at least 15 years already: plant mature trees and shrubs. Before going to the nursery to purchase them make sure you have also contracted a professional, as you will need help in picking your plants, delivering them to your garden and planting them safely in the right spot.

If you'd also like to have a fountain in your garden but just don't have enough space for it, an alternative is to have a wall water fountain. For this you also need professional help.

There are many thing to be aware of when creating your garden design and sometimes might get overwhelming but in the end it definitely worth it.

Do-it-yourself (or DIY) garden design seems like a daunting task, but that's not really the case. It is relatively easy to plan a healthy vegetable garden yourself. Here are some tips for the budding garden designer:

Use the tools that you're familiar with. There are a lot of new computer tools you can use for do-it-yourself garden design. While using these tools has its benefits, only stick to the tools that you know. If you prefer to design your garden on graphing paper with a pencil, go with that. By using design tools that you know, you're lowering the learning curve and you spend more time actually designing your garden instead of learning how to use a new tool.

Know your priorities. When designing your own garden landscape, it's important to know your priorities. What do you value the most: accessibility, plant health, aesthetics, conserving water, or variety? List your priorities in order. This list will guide you when you need to make tough decisions, such as choosing between the fruits and vegetables you eat the most or the ones that are the most pleasing to the eye.

Plan in terms of zones. In permaculture, they have a concept known as "growing zones" which allow you to design proper plant placement in your garden. Zone 1, or the zone within a few feet of your doorstep, should be the place for the plants you need to visit everyday - whether it's because they need more maintenance or you use them a lot in your home. Zone 2 is for plants that also need a lot of attention, but not as much as those in Zone 1. These may include fruit-bearing trees, trellises, and vegetables that you don't need to harvest regularly.

Think outside the "box". Stop thinking of vegetable plots and garden sections as squares or rectangles. Although these shapes are more practical to plan and easy for the beginner, there are other types of shapes that give you the most workable gardening area. For example, a "keyhole" plot is a circular patch with a narrow path going into the center, which is vacant. That narrow path and vacant center is enough for you to tend to the plants and harvest their fruit. At the same time, you're conserving surface area since you don't need a longer walkable path to reach the plants.